EVENTS

Food for thought

Something to think about…violence against women in Pakistan: 2,713 cases reported in 2012 so far, not in Pakistan, but just in southern Punjab. And those are only the reported ones. Something tells me that not all women subject to violence in Pakistan are able or willing to report it.

These include cases of aas-aaf custom (10) – in which women accused of ‘bringing shame to the family’ take an oath of innocence on the Holy Quran and then walk on burning coals spread over six metres–, abduction and torture after abduction (577), acid attacks (20), burning by throwing kerosene oil and petrol (17), kaala kaali (25), assault after divorce (45), assault by in-laws (100), ‘honour’ killings (112), murder and assault for contracting a marriage with their free will (114), murder (162), victims of panchayat decisions where women were either sold or killed (37), rape (304), assault by police (20), suicide in reaction to family pressure, rape or other forms of violence (444), torture leading to physical or mental disability (489), wani (37), watta satta (25) and cases of gender discrimination and disinheritance (175).

I hadn’t heard of that aas-aaf custom. That’s nice. Very 16th century Europe, where women accused of being witches might be thrown into a pond. If they drowned they were innocent. Yay.

Farkhanda, a second year student and a hafiz-i-Quran, had an argument with three women neighbours when she went to their house to collect her dupatta that had fallen into their house.

They said the women accused her of throwing the dupatta into their house on purpose.

They accused her of entering their house with an intention to steal from there. Some neighbours heard them arguing and intervened, police said.

The matter was resolved and Farkhanda returned home, they said.

However, later that night, police said, three youths, Ibrahim, Iqbal and Bilal, relatives of the women Farkhanda earlier had an argument with, went to her house while her family was away and beat her up. Police said they decapitated her with a butcher’s cleaver…

And then after a pause to catch their breath, they chopped off her arms and legs.

While men are killed, it’s not for the same reason. Women are victimized because they are easily bullied. The culture there particularly encourages the bullying of women. That is in part why their religion matches their natural animosity towards the weaker sex. The men are rather helpless in their uneducated stupidity and love to take out their frustrations on the women.

As an American, I think our soldiers in Afghanistan are accomplices in the treasonable act of installing and supporting a regime that wishes to export their dream of enslaving women and destroying tolerance and equalities that are the hallmark of Freedom. The U.S. Gov. does this because they want to not upset their crazy religion as if religion is a good thing.